Microsoft Finds Little NYT Article Use in Copilot

Microsoft has argued in new court filings that its AI assistant, Copilot, seldom reproduces even complete sentences from news articles or books, a claim that comes amid a copyright lawsuit involving publishers such as The New York Times and several book authors. The company says the allegation is based on a comprehensive review of the system’s outputs, which it presents as evidence that Copilot does not generate substantial excerpts that could replace the original works.

As part of the discovery process, Microsoft supplied 8.2 million Copilot chat logs to an expert hired by the news plaintiffs. The logs were selected because they contained keywords linked to the plaintiffs’ websites, making them the most likely to include the plaintiffs’ content. The expert’s analysis reportedly identified 59,545 instances where Copilot’s responses incorporated text that could be traced back to the plaintiffs’ copyrighted material.

The findings are being used by Microsoft to defend its position that the AI’s use of copyrighted text falls within fair use or is otherwise non‑infringing. The lawsuit, which also involves claims from book authors, remains in the discovery phase, and the outcome will likely influence how AI systems handle copyrighted content in the future.